NHL 10
/ ps3
/ xbox360

EA Sports’ NHL franchise has a distinguished pedigree -- the past two games in the series have earned 19 “sports game of the year” awards from various videogame publications and Web sites, and the games have only gotten better as time has passed. Each year, developer EA Canada has set the hockey bar higher and higher by putting out titles that have been worth buying in consecutive years.

You’d think that the series would be due for a misstep eventually, that it couldn’t possibly keep making strides toward a better simulation of hockey without an off year.

You’d be wrong. Dead wrong -- at least in the case of this year’s effort, NHL 10.

[Editor’s note: NHL 10 does not launch until tomorrow; since I was unable to test the game in a real-world online setting, this review does not discuss the game’s online play. -Samit]